Sting has worked for every major wrestling organization since 1987 and says he has never seen a camaraderie shared amongst talent like the current feeling of brotherhood in the locker room of AEW.
Sting will have his first proper wrestling match in nearly six years when he teams with Darby Allin against Ethan Page and Scorpio Sky at AEW Double Or Nothing on Sunday, May 30, 2021. Sting has been paired with Darby for nearly six months, ever since his arrival at AEW Winter Is Coming.
Speaking with Paste Magazine ahead of the match, Sting expressed how excited he is to be back in front of a full capacity crowd and how he has trained for the match.
“It’s exciting. Especially exciting because we’ll have a full crowd. [Laughs] No one is going to deny the fact that it is different wrestling in front of a Covid audience, with the distancing and nobody there. It’s different. I know those NBA players and everyone had to have felt it the same way. To have all the people is going to be fantastic. I’m looking forward to it. I haven’t forgotten all those matches in the past in front of big crowds and how exciting that all is, and I know it’s going to be just the same. It’s going to be incredible on Sunday.“
He continued, “I’m trying to work a lot on mobility, that’s for sure. I don’t recover as quick as I used to, either, so I have to really watch how I train, so I don’t overtrain because, I’m telling you, you just don’t recover the same. I’m still feeling the effects of the powerbomb that I took from Brian Cage [in February 2021]. There are a few kinks I still have from that one. Otherwise, I’m preparing the same. It’s the same kind of stuff, I just have to think about when I do it and what intensity levels and all that. I’m trying to get the heart rate up as much as I possibly can, so the stamina’s there to go with these young guys. Yeah, I’m getting ready—I am ready.”
Speaking about this new company as opposed to the many other popular organizations he has been a part of in the over 30 years he has been involved in wrestling, Sting stated he has never been a part of a more supportive environment.
“It is a place where you’ve got a bunch of male and female soldiers all sort of marching in the same direction, and pretty much everybody’s marching to the same beat. There isn’t really any factions or cliques or groups of people. Everybody is looking out for everybody and everybody wants AEW to succeed. Everybody wants… they’re really involved with other matches. They’re watching, and somebody will finish a great match, and they’ll walk back out and you’ll hear the entire locker room area clapping and applauding. I think there’s a great unity, really, to be honest with you, with most everybody there in AEW. Something that I’ve never experienced.
"The closest I ever got was WCW, years ago, when Eric Bischoff took over and he was up there in the nosebleed sections, listening to fans and how they were reacting to the storylines and to each individual wrestler. You’ve had some of the biggest names in the business, Hall and Nash and Hogan, all of us, Luger… we were all sort of like walking together. Everybody was looking out for everybody else, and the creative juices were flowing, not just for yourself, with no hidden agendas. We had about 12 months of that, I’d say, and then it all ended. But here, I’d heard that’s the way the atmosphere was in AEW, and I walked into it and have experienced it firsthand now for six months, and that’s exactly the way it is. It starts at the top, and filters its way down. Tony [Khan] is a very personable guy, a very approachable guy. I’ve noticed he’s like that with just about everybody, it doesn’t matter who you are. It’s a good atmosphere.”
Fightful will have live coverage of Double Or Nothing this Sunday, May 30. We will also have live, on-location coverage throughout the weekend.
